Belmont Park has been very, very good to its operators this year, but it could have been even better.

Since taking over the Mission Beach attraction nearly two years ago, the park’s new overseers have expanded the entertainment offerings, introduced more-sophisticated dining options and given the beachfront destination a gradual face-lift, helping boost overall revenues.

Belmont, though, has also been a financial drain — albeit a temporary one — for Rancho Santa Fe-based Pacifica Enterprises, a real estate investment firm, which partnered with hospitality company Eat Drink Sleep on redevelopment of the park, which sits on city-owned land.

The nearly century-old Plunge building and swimming pool, shuttered since March, is in need of millions of dollars more in restorative work than originally anticipated. The athletic club is closed as well, meaning a steep loss in membership revenue.

Although a new beach-front restaurant, Draft, opened in June, Belmont’s rooftop Cannonball restaurant, which debuted last summer and then closed five months later for an expansion, remains closed, having missed out on the pivotal, moneymaking summer season. A well-intentioned effort to install a dramatic, LED-lit glass elevator to provide access to the restaurant has been stalled for months, delaying a reopening of the oceanview venue until February.

Although the extended closure of Cannonball “hurts me,” said Eat Drink Sleep CEO Brett Miller, so too does the shuttering of the Plunge.

“One thing we’re not going to do is cut corners, but we didn’t expect to have to close the Plunge for as long as we did,” he added. “It doesn’t help us that 500 people every day come to that Plunge. We want it to get back open and be a revenue-generating source for us.”

Over the past couple of years, Pacifica and Eat Drink Sleep have rarely taken a break from work on the park’s makeover. They expect to have invested about $10.5 million by year’s end, with more improvements on the drawing board for next year.

The city of San Diego, which gets a share of the revenues from park sales, says it has observed an increase in its take over the past year since a number of changes have been implemented. Lease revenue for the first half of this year (which doesn’t include most of the busy summer season) climbed 16 percent, to $254,100 from more than $219,000 last year, according to the city’s real estate assets department.

The current lease, which is being renegotiated to make it longer term, includes a rent credit that effectively cuts the city’s annual rent in half once the amount due hits a threshold of $70,000. The remaining value of the credit, as of June 1, is $2.9 million.

“With the changes they’ve made, like the restaurants, we’ve already seen a huge increase in revenue to the city,” said Kristi Geitz, interim director of San Diego’s real estate assets department. “So we’ve definitely seen positive changes with the new leasehold.”

Through Labor Day weekend, Eat Drink Sleep expects it will see a 20 percent jump in revenues over last summer, driven in large part by Draft, which wasn’t open a year ago, Miller said.

Work will resume in earnest later this year on finishing up current projects and starting new ones, including replacing all the exterior flooring and upgrading the area around the WaveHouse, and there’s even a field trip planned for the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions’ November trade show in Orlando.

“What can we put into Belmont to make it super exciting? What’s the hot new thing?” Miller said. “Now we’re hungry, we understand we have a full year under our belt, and the demand is there. We just need the right product.”

Taking the Plunge

Now drained of all its water, the aging swimming pool is still very much a work in progress as Pacifica struggles to not only repair the deteriorating facility but also restore it in a historically accurate way. While the company has already spent $500,000 on a new filtration system, the gutter that rimmed the perimeter of the pool had corroded so badly that it needs to be entirely replaced, along with the old white porcelain tile work that lines the sides and bottom of the pool and which needs to be matched to retain the pool’s historic authenticity.

“That’s an expense we didn’t expect,” said Miller, who hopes to have the pool reopened by spring.

The Plunge building’s rusting steel frame will still be coated with a special epoxy paint, but it’s the tile replacement work on the pool that has really slowed down the repair process, Miller explained. The roof of the building needs to be replaced, and Pacifica is working on putting in a new ventilation system, which hasn’t worked in years. The original $750,000 budget, which contemplated repairs to the pool only, will likely soar to $5 million, Miller estimates.

He envisions a time when the Plunge, in addition to catering to swimmers, will become a tourist attraction and a unique space for birthday celebrations and cocktail parties

The adjoining Athletic Club is closed as well and will be getting a face-lift, with all new equipment and a rooftop deck for workouts and yoga. In the meantime, because of the protracted closure, club memberships had to be refunded. There were about 1,400 members, Miller said.

Zipping through the park

Just in time for Labor Day, the park’s new zip line, which rises 29 feet above the ground and spans about two-thirds of the property’s length, opened for business. It’s the latest entertainment offering from Mission Beach Attractions, which operates all the amusement park-style games, from the Tron-themed, three-story laser tag arena to the Tiki Town miniature golf course. New additions over the past couple of years represent an investment of more than $2.5 million, with the zip line alone costing $350,000. The price for two “zip” rides is $10.

The zip line is part of the park’s new adrenaline zone, which has a rock-climbing wall and will soon debut the Leap of Faith attraction where individuals, strapped into a harness and attached to a cable, can ascend a 30-foot tower and leap from a platform that will give them the sensation of a free-fall. Along with more colorful, higher-end signage, there are also several new midway games, including a shooting gallery and tub toss game.

“For 10 years, I’ve been steadily growing my business, but in the last 18 months with Pacifica as the new landlord, my business has grown 40, 50 percent due to their interest and desire to make the park better,” said James Austin, owner of Mission Beach Attractions.

The Coaster Room

Pacifica recently completed work on a new rooftop deck and event space that will replace the former windowless, ground floor community rooms where groups like the Mission Beach Town Council meet monthly. The new glass-enclosed Coaster Room, however, will primarily serve as an event space. With its views of the ocean and the iconic wooden roller coaster, the $1.5 million space can accommodate up to 500 people and already has been booked for about a dozen gatherings through the end of the year, according to Miller.

Waterfront dining

The new oceanfront Draft restaurant features a huge video panel with clips of the Mission Beach boardwalk

Nelvin C. Cepeda

The new oceanfront Draft restaurant features a huge video panel with clips of the Mission Beach boardwalk

The new oceanfront Draft restaurant features a huge video panel with clips of the Mission Beach boardwalk (Nelvin C. Cepeda)

Belmont’s new craft beer-centric restaurant, Draft, has been packing customers in since opening in June and enjoyed a robust Labor Day weekend crowd, helped along by warm beach weather, Miller said. The 6,000-square-foot venue, which faces the ocean and features a 31-foot-by-18-foot TV screen, occupies a space that had been vacant for four years.

Cannonball, which is upstairs, also takes advantage of expansive ocean views, but its hoped-for reopening in early June never came to pass. Much of the restaurant expansion, including a new kitchen and sushi bar, is nearly complete, but the outdoor glass elevator — inspired by one at the New York City Apple store — became a complicated endeavor that delayed the entire restaurant project.

A specialist was recently hired to advise the Belmont operators on how to ensure the glass-enclosed structure will hold up in an outdoor coastal location.

“Unfortunately, we have a restaurant upstairs that’s completely ready to go, but we can’t open until there’s an elevator,” said Miller, who hopes to open Cannonball in time for Valentine’s Day.